WARN

It’s hard to keep up with the crush of interesting stories related to the election. One such story relates to the Obama administration’s desperate efforts to prevent defense contractors from fulfilling their legal obligations as employers under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act to issue notices of layoffs that would be caused by the sequestration of defense funds. The Department of Labor’s helpful overview of the WARN Act is posted here.

The Obama administration ardently wishes those layoff notices, otherwise required by federal law, not to go out before — to pick a date at random — November 6. For these folks, it’s all politics all the time.

Though we failed to note it, that by itself was notable. Now comes this: The Office of Management and Budget is promising to compensate defense contractors for liability they might incur as a result of violating the WARN Act. The Hill reports on the latest here. The OMB memo is posted here. WARN indeed.